15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel Reading: Mark 6:7-13

7 Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giv­ing them authority over the unclean spirits.

8 And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff- no bread, no haversack, no coppers far their purses.

9 They were to wear sandals hut, he added, 'Do not take a spare tunic.'

10 And he said to them, 'If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district.

11 And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them.'

12 So they set off to preach repentance;

13 and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.

Meditation

This passage contains several separate sections. Each has an important message for us today.

Jesus summoned the Twelve.

He selected a group of peo­ple who he felt would be able to represent him before the world. He called them by name so that he could send them into the world not merely as a group, but as individuals.

These disciples then received a mission from Jesus: to make the world a little more as Jesus wants it to be. This is always his work - to take the world as it is and make it the kind that he will be able to offer to God as a fragrant offering in his sight.

This work always has two dimensions. On the one hand it must help people become more committed to being closer to him as their Lord. As they develop within themselves an ever closer relationship with him, they must strive to become more and more like him.

A further purpose of the work is to help the world become more fervent in the Lord's service. The world must become a place where people will be able to do Jesus' work among their fellow men and women.

Jesus began to send them out in pairs. This was an important aspect of their mission - they must work together.

He also gave them authority over unclean spirits. They must go among those members of the human race who control and in­fluence what is wrong in the world.

The true spirit of God wilt always prevent us from looking at those different from our-selves as evil-doers or wrong in some way; an 'evil spirit' always works against this.

We as true disciples of Jesus are reminded of times when we too felt within ourselves a desire to 'summon' a group of disci­ples. We wanted them to be more like us.

We wanted to send them out into the world to make it more as we would like it to be, The passage is telling us that when we feel like that we are closer to the spirit of Jesus.

Instructions

The first of these was very simple: they must take nothing for the journey 'except a staff. This means two big things nowadays:
- that we must bring something of ourselves to the people we meet in the world; we come to others with our own opinions, our own view of the world;
- that this personal thing we are bringing must not be some­thing for ourselves and against others.
The passage then tells us in some detail what this 'nothing extra' really means:
- 'no bread' - nothing extra to eat, nothing that we can claim as our own, nothing that we could draw on in case our method demands a special sacrifice from us;
- 'no haversack' - nothing that we could store for the next day in case things get rough; we must go as we are with no special requirements;
- 'no coppers for their purses', nothing that could be put in place for our personal 'source of sustenance'.
- they were to 'wear sandals' and 'not take a spare tunic' -have nothing extra to keep for a future day when things might be different. *esus then gives them additional instructions:
- Once they have entered a house they are to stay there until they leave the district, staying wherever people are willing to receive them and not moving around looking for a place where they will be even more welcome.

If people refuse to listen to them, they must shake the dust off their feet: they must not hold on to a rejection as something that defines them from then on. They must move on in perfect freedom.

This will be a clear sign to all as to what has really happened between the giver and the receiver of the message.

Prayer

'Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.'
Oscar Wilde

Lord, in the world today it is taken for granted that if we want to spread a message we need an advertising campaign with glamorous images on television, catchy jingles on the radio, posters in public places.

Of course, this requires plenty of money. We followers of Jesus seem to think we too must adopt this way of spreading the message. But for Jesus the truth of his message was the most important thing.

This is why, when he summoned the Twelve and sent them out, giving them authority over unclean spirits, he instructed them to take nothing for the journey - no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses; they must wear sandals and not take a spare tunic.

Lord, help us to enter into the mind of Jesus.

Lord, forgive us for thinking we can do your work alone, forgetting that we are all in need:
- men and women must complement each other;
- while each of us has gifts, we also have defects that others must make up for;
- those who disagree with us bring a new dimension to our ideas;
- our church needs the gifts of other churches. Remind us that unless we are sent out in pairs we will not have authority over the unclean spirits of our society.
'Do not move from insight to insight, but let each one heart.'
Theophane Venard, mystic of the early church

Lord, often when we read the Bible we move quickly from one line to another, from one thought to the next.

But you send your words as Jesus sent the Twelve, to enter deeply into our inner dwelling and to remain there, nourishing and reconciling everything in us.

Lord, when people reject us we feel a lot of anger, anger that keeps us in bondage, holding us back like mud on our feet.

Help us, Lord, as we walk away, to shake the dust from under our feet, so that we may be free to give ourselves to others.

'As a social force a university should enlighten and transform the soci­ety in which it lives and for which it should live.'
Ignacio Ellacuria, one of the six Jesuits killed in El Salvador, December 1989

Lord, we pray for all those who work in teaching institutions. Don't let us remain turned in on ourselves; send us out as Jesus sent his disciples. Many people are complacent -help us to go out and teach them repentance.

There are terrible demons abroad: materialism, individualism, racism, sexism -help us to cast them out.

There are many sick people, the lonely, the downtrodden, the victims of discrimination -help us to anoint them with oil and to cure them.

'! have a great fear in my heart that one day, when they turn to loving, they will find we have turned to hating.'
A black priest in Alan Paton'sbook about South Africa, Cry the Beloved Country

Lord, preserve us from rejecting the hand of friendship, lest we find one day that those we want to love have shaken the dust from under their feet as a sign to us.